Creative Informatics Ethics Statement (version 2.0)

Creative Informatics has been an ambitious research and development programme based in Edinburgh, which aimed to bring the city’s world-class creative industries and tech sector together, providing funding and development opportunities that enabled creative individuals and organisations to explore how data could be used to drive ground-breaking new products, businesses and experiences. Creative Informatics has nurtured local talent through funding programmes and regular events that supported Edinburgh’s creative industries to do inspiring things with data. This work has been supported by research into the cluster and emerging data driven creative practices.

The Creative Informatics Ethics Statement was created to capture the programme’s position on the values and priorities for the work undertaken and supported, and forms part of our work to encourage best practices and thoughtful reflection on work with data and new technologies in the creative industries. This Ethics Statement provides guidance for those working in and around the creative industries, or with data more broadly in a creative context, and should be used as a tool for reflection with prompts to consider, document, and review approaches and practices, and as a way to encourage positive engagement with legal and societal responsibilities. 

In the Creative Informatics programme we have used this ethics process as a required component of forming contracts with companies selected for R&D grant funding, with participants required to complete and submit the form for review before the signing of contracts. In some cases (based either on the complexity of issues raised, and/or on the preference of participants for additional support), the review process was accompanied by further discussion, guidance, and a resubmitted version of the form prior to official sign off by the programme team.

The authors are publishing this work openly as we enthusiastically welcome reuse and remixing of the Creative Informatics Ethics Statement and welcome questions or comments that may feed into future iterations and best practices. Since the original publication of the Creative Informatics Ethics Statement (v1.3), it has been adopted by other organisations as a tool, particularly those working with creative SMEs. This updated statement (v2.0) includes a number of additions, changes and updates informed by Creative Informatics’ use of this process with over 130 R&D projects, as well as feedback from wider stakeholders.